Exemplary embodiments relate to the field of communications, and more specifically, to processing a multilevel communication signal.
Digital communications involve conveying digital data by generating, sending, receiving, and processing analog waveforms. A transmitter accepts a sequence of digitally formatted data and converts the sequence into an analog waveform. Each time interval of this waveform carries or is encoded with an element of digital information referred to as a symbol. A one-to-one correspondence typically exists between each discrete waveform state and each symbol. That is, for the set of symbols that a communication system can convey, each symbol matches a specific signal level from two or more signal level possibilities. The transmitter outputs the waveform onto a medium or channel. The waveform transmits or propagates over the medium or channel to a receiver, which decodes or extracts the original data from the received waveform.
The transmitter generating the waveform sets the signal amplitude, phase, and/or frequency of the output waveform to one of N discrete values, levels, or states during the time interval to represent digital information. For example, binary signaling uses N=2 levels, with the levels corresponding to or representing “0” and “1”. Multilevel signaling schemes can use more than two levels, i.e., N≧2, with the levels being “0”, “1”, . . . , “N−1”. The transmitter transmits a signal level or symbol during a predetermined time period or interval called the symbol period and denoted as T0. Thus, the transmitter conveys digital data to the receiver as a sequence of symbols, while transmitting one symbol per symbol period.
On the opposite end of the communication link from the transmitter, the receiver decodes the digital information from the communicated analog waveform. That is, for each symbol, the transmitter determines or detects which of the levels was transmitted from the N possibilities. Thus, the receiver processes the incoming waveform to assign a symbol to each symbol period. If the symbol that the receiver assigns to the waveform is the same symbol that the transmitter used as the basis for modulating or generating the waveform, then the communication of that symbol succeeded, and that data element transmitted without error.